Movie Poster of the Week – THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT

BadAzz MoFo’s celebration of the art of the movie poster (though not necessarily the movie itself).

I saw this in the theaters when I was a kid back in 1975, and I thought it was just about the best movie I’d ever seen. Thankfully, my cinematic tastes have developed over the years (though not that much). The years haven’t been that kind to The Land that Time Forgot—or maybe it’s just that the movie is questionable at best. It is the best of the three Edgar Rice Burroughs films made by the British production company Amicus (the other two being At the Earth’s Core and The People that Time Forgot). But despite the questionable quality of the movie, the poster was and remains awesome. I’m pretty sure that version above is a variation of the British poster. It is considerably different from the American version, which is not nearly as compelling. In fact, the American version of the poster is pretty lame (check it out below). See what I mean? And it’s totally misleading. There’s no giant octopus. No underwater diving. No mini submarine thing. None of that shit is in the movie. But Doug McClure is in it, and the British version of the poster makes him look so much more cool than he actually is in the movie (it also makes Susan Penhaligon’s breasts appear to be much bigger than they actually are).

And as an added bonus…here is artist Nick Cardy’s cover for the Marvel comic adaptation of the film.